Secrets Within
by Screaming Faeries
Summary: When Lucius was a teenager, he had a deep, dark secret. Something he would hold within him until the day he died - something he most definitely not release to any of his pure-blooded family or friends - in particular, his wife. Written for the Female Character challenge on the HPFC.


**A.N:** This was written for the Female Character challenge, with the prompt of Catherine Earnshaw.

* * *

oOo

Once, there was a time when Lucius Malfoy had a deep, dark secret.

He was fourteen, and when he came home for the holidays from Hogwarts, he was prone to taking a short walk through the nearby village, much to the disgust of his father. It wasn't that he enjoyed being around muggles – really, he didn't care for them much at all. He just enjoyed the village – it was a neat, tidy place, which seemed to be radiantly sunny even on the dreariest of days.

But one day, he had taken a seat on a bench in front of a row of shops, when he noticed her, a girl behind the counter in the bakery that was called Earnshaws. He felt immediately mesmerised; she was probably a year or two older than him, but she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. When she stood up to wipe the windows a few times, and arrange the display, he noticed that she had hair that was a light, honey blonde, and framed her heart-shaped face wonderfully. She caught his gaze a few times, with bright, cerulean eyes that melted his insides to mush. He watched her for a whole day; in awe of her smiling face, her soft, slender frame, and her attractive, captivating laugh, that he often heard when the door would swing open.

He was utterly infatuated by this muggle, and more times than one he had a strong urge to go in there and demand whether she had any Veela genes in her blood.

But then he would remember who she really was; a muggle. And he was Lucius Malfoy, a member of the most pure-blood families in the wizarding world, if you didn't count the Black family. His father would die of shame if he discovered his only son was nursing a secret infatuation for the local muggle girl – the Baker's daughter, to boot.

So he would leave, and never speak to the girl, even though he had many conversations with her in his head. For the next two years, when he came back home from Hogwarts, even though he had vowed to never break his blood purity, he would still wander into the nearby village. He would sit on that same bench, and watch the girl working for several hours.

Until one year, in his final year. He went back home, as usual. On the first morning of being at home during the Christmas holidays, he wolfed down his breakfast. He waved at his mother as he ran out of the door, promising to be home before lunch. There was snow on the ground and it was very, very cold, but that only meant the bakery got more business. People always wanted warm bread and other treats.

He couldn't sit on the bench that year, as it was frozen over. So finally, he decided to pluck up the courage and enter the bakery, promising himself he would just pretend to be taking a look (he had no muggle money, anyway).

When he walked through the door, there was a warm smell of baking bread washing over his face, and the sound of a tinkling charm jingling as the door swung open. He breathed in, momentarily enjoying the blissful warmth and the delicious smell. He looked over at the counter, waiting to see the beautiful girl he had secretly loved for so many years, looking back at him.

But instead was a boy of about fifteen, with flat, dark hair and a bad case of acne. He was leaning on the counter, staring out of the window and looking bored. He noticed Lucius, and stood up straight, slowly. "Oh. Hey. What can I get you?"

Lucius stared at the boy, his mind whirring. Of course. The girl who he had fawned over had grown up, just as he had done. She probably worked at the bakery part time, to get pocket money. She would have gone off now, and got herself a proper job in the muggle world. He cursed himself inwardly. He didn't even know her name.

Several years later, Lucius would find himself married to the third daughter of Cygnus and Druella Black, her name was Narcissa. He prided himself in marrying a very pure blooded witch, from a very old pure blooded family. But he always noticed, no matter how much he tried to push it out of his mind; Narcissa would forever harbour the qualities of the girl he used to love. He saw her blue eyes in Narcissa. Narcissa's long, blonde hair was almost the same shade of the muggle girl's. Some nights, when he was unable to keep her from his mind, when they went to bed together and the lights were off, he would feel the slender body of the muggle, when caressing his wife.

But he could never tell anyone of this. He valued pure blood over any muggle girl. Nothing could make him become a traitor to his blood, nothing at all.

Purity reigned over all.

oOo


End file.
